Author: knjohn

What Your Company Needs to Know About Point of Sale Compliance | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Understanding the basics behind point of sale (POS) compliance can be something of a chore, but it is key to making sure you select the right POS system for your business. A good point of sale system can be way more than just a cash register and a payment terminal. Indeed, a terrific POS can help you with inventory management, referral programs, rewards programs, and other elements of customer relationship management. However, without substantial compliance, your POS can be something you never want it to be: a liability.

In this article, we are going to look at three elements of POS compliance and how they can help to keep your customers safe. These elements are PCI, PAYware Connect, and EMV.

Read More

Judge rejects $100 million settlement between Uber and drivers | Money CNN

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A federal judge has rejected a proposed $100 million settlement between Uber and its drivers.

The deal between Uber and drivers in California and Massachusetts did not compensate drivers enough, the judge ruled.

The April settlement was three years in the making. Its rejection could force Uber to dig deeper to reach a deal.

The lawsuits had charged that the drivers should be treated as employees, rather than independent contractors. That would have entitled the drivers to a variety of benefits, including overtime and health insurance. It also might have put Uber on the hook for some of the drivers expenses, such as gas and tolls.

Read More

How To Increase Business Efficiency Even More | Getentrepreneurial.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Efficiency is everything when it comes to building and growing a business. It not only saves time, money, and effort, it improves results across the border. Although this blog has already touched upon how to build better business efficiency by enhancing ergonomics, communications and data entry, employee productivity, weekly goals, and qualifying clients better, there is still much more you can do to improve your company’s productivity and cost-efficiency.

Here are 4 more ways to improve efficiency in a business by leveraging the power of technology.

Read More

30 Cool New Products from Amazon Launchpad | Small Biz Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you happen to be browsing on Amazon’s site and you’ve wondered how many items are available from the online mega retailer, click right here. As of this posting, there were 366,874,689 items being offered for sale, which is quite daunting if you’re looking to introduce a new product and compete with the hundreds of millions out there. Granted there are many departments, but even a simple search for watches turns up more than two million items.

In order to give startups a leg up when breaking into this vast online marketplace, Amazon introduced Launchpad last year.

Crowdfunding sites like such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo and accelerators like Y Combinator have partnered with Amazon to identify products with the greatest potential and placed them into the Launchpad product listing.

Source: 30 Cool New Products from Amazon Launchpad

This is how Apple will make your home smarter | Mashable 

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s worth wondering if we’d be further along in our quest for the ultimate smart home if we had never called it a Smart Home.

The idea that an entire dwelling could achieve something approaching sentience in one-fell swoop was always ludicrous. While our homes represent a singular idea, they’re comprised of a million competing ones. Invariably it’s a hodgepodge, an eclectic mix of design, decor, gadgets and interfaces.

We buy what we like and what we think will fill a utility gap. The refrigerator is purchased for one reason, while the electric stove is for another. Our dish washing machine might be from Kenmore while our clothes dryer is from Samsung.

We buy one set of shades for one room and a different set for another.

In the early days of the smart home revolution, manufacturers tried to sell consumers on a cohesive idea: turnkey systems installed by professionals with a centrally managed interface that only a Mensa candidate could figure out.

Read More

How La Niña could impact Asian currencies | Business Insider

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

One of the biggest drivers of Asian currencies in the coming months could be the weather.

In a note out Wednesday, strategists at Deutsche Bank examined the impact that the climate pattern La Niña could have on Asian economies, and how a pass through effect from the weather could ease a jump in inflation and eventually weaken currencies.

The National Oceanic Administration Agency has confirmed that La Niña is coming. It will follow a record-setting El Niño, which is marked by unusually dry weather.

Read More

Canadians Support A Basic Income–But Not If Taxes Have To Go Up | Co.Exist

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Canada is one of a small but growing number of countries considering a basic income guarantee. In March, a key parliamentary committee said the government should be studying the idea. Several members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet support basic income (the Liberal Party manifesto endorsed it, though it wasn’t in the election platform).

And, most importantly, Ontario has announced a full pilot, and Quebec has a minister investigating the potential. With the Liberals in power in seven of Canada’s 10 provinces, “potential exists for pan-provincial support for a guaranteed minimum income if Ottawa and provincial governments work together,” says Global Risk Insights, a news site.

Read More

Open Source Won. So, Now What? | WIRED

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

THE GOVERNMENT IS now a little more open. This week, the White House released its first official federal source code policy, detailing a pilot program that requires government agencies to release 20 percent of any new code they commission as open source software, meaning the code will be available for anyone to examine, modify, and reuse in their own projects. The government agencies will also share more code with each other, essentially adopting open source practices within their own governmental universe.

It’s the latest in a long line of high-profile victories for the open source movement. As recently as a decade ago, the worlds of both government and business worried that using open source software would open them up to bugs, security holes, and countless lawsuits. But despite these early fears, open source came to dominate the digital landscape. Today, practically every major piece of technology you interact with on a day-to-day basis—from the web to your phone to your car—was built using at least some form of freely available code.

Read More

Millennials: 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship (Seventh in a Series) | Peter Mehit

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

AAEAAQAAAAAAAAddAAAAJDY4NzdlNGFkLWE5ZjAtNDcxNC04YTUxLTcyOGNmMTc5ODk2OQ7. Be Wrong, be Strong

The ability to be truthful goes directly to the heart of whether you get funding, attract customers and recruit great employees. But that is just one part of it. The ability to be wrong can determine if you survive at all.

We’ve all had bosses, friends and relatives that just couldn’t admit they’d made a mistake.  We know how we feel when we know the facts and someone tells us we’re wrong or don’t understand.  The longer we are in that environment, the less we trust the person, the more we doubt reality, or both.

Make no mistake, we presently live in a say anything to win environment.  Sometimes people are intentionally dishonest.  These situations tend to be self-liquidating.  Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, who famously said that having a backup plan is admitting failure, is the latest example where outright deceit brought someone crashing down. While spectacular, these cases relatively rare.

Continue reading “Millennials: 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship (Seventh in a Series) | Peter Mehit” →

South Korea gaming: How a T-shirt cost an actress her job | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The “Gamergate” controversy which roiled the world of video gaming has hit a new level. The name was coined as a row over whether Western gamers were mostly male and anti-women. Now, a similar row is rocking South Korea, arguably the country with the strongest culture of gaming in the world. As the BBC’s Steve Evans reports from Seoul, it all started with a slogan on a T-shirt.

On the face of it, the slogan “Girls do not need a prince” doesn’t seem that controversial.

In many parts of the world, it would pass as the kind of thing any young woman might wear without prompting a second look.

But when the actress, Kim Jayeon, tweeted a photograph of herself wearing the garment, she generated a storm and lost herself a job.

Read More